DIY Typography Tray: I Heart You

diy-letter-tray-wood-black-letters-pink-i-heart-you-diy-craft

We tend to hoard things we find in the Target Dollar Spot, known as Bullseye’s Playground. Does anyone else have that problem? They are never absolute necessities, but at the time they are must-haves, and at $1 or $3, it’s hard to pass up. This tray was sitting in Jessica’s craft pile for months and months. It was one of those Playground finds. Finally, a lightbulb moment went off. We played with letters, and with just a couple materials we made a unique DIY tray for a loved one this Valentine’s Day. It can be used year-round because the words I (heart) you can, and should, be said year-round.

diy-letter-tray-wood-black-letters-pink-i-heart-you-diy-craft

Materials:

Step 1: Lay the letters out on the tray the way you want them to look. Spread out the I, heart and you among the black letters so the message stands out. If you want to use a different object other than letters, such as matches, beads, etc you can, just make sure they are thin. The thinner they are, the less Dimensional Magic needed to cover them.

letters-tray-glue-art-project

 

letters-pink-i-heart-you-diy-craft-project

Step 2: Super glue the back of each letter, and lay it back down where you want it. Wear gloves for this step – you don’t want letters stuck to your skin!

super-glue-letter-s

blue-latex-gloves-diy-art-project
Step 3: Once all the letters are glued, start to pour the Dimensional Magic. We suggest smaller trays for this project. We needed four packages of Dimensional Magic, which wasn’t too expensive at $5 each, but the smaller the tray, the less product you need to buy.

dimensional-magic-diy-letter-tray

dimensional-magic-diy-tray-with-black-letters-and-a-pink-heart

dimensional-magic-on-a-tray-with-black-letters-and-a-pink-i-heart-you

dimensional-magic-project-diy-tray-with-black-letters-typography-i-heart-you-pink-letters

Step 4: Let the Dimensional Magic dry for at least 8 hours. The color will be clear, and not cloudy once it’s fully dry.

diy-letter-tray-wood-black-letters-pink-i-heart-you-diy-craft

diy-letter-tray-wood-black-letters-pink-i-heart-you-diy-craft

Pucker Up: DIY Lip Balm with Essential Oils Just in Time for Valentine’s Day

DIY-essential-oils-lipbalm-peppermint-beeswax-pellets-yellow
We have a drawer full of essential oils. The more we learn about the uses of the oils, the more we love. The more we love, the more we want to make. The more we make, the more we want to share.

This post was inspired by Gabriella’s (Jessica’s daughter) lip-making kit she got for Christmas (if a 6-year-old can make DIY lip balm with the help of a kit, we could surely make it, too), as well as Valentine’s Day. We made DIY lip balms with essential oils that not only smell amazing, but feel soft and smooth on lips too! These make awesome gifts for girlfriends and loved ones. It was so easy, and so fun.

DIY-essential-oils-lipbalm-peppermint-beeswax-pellets-yellow

DIY Lip Balm with Essential Oils
makes 6 lip balm tubes

Ingredients:

Directions:

Step 1: Add 2 inches of water to a saucepan on the stove. Put on high for boiling water.

Step 2: Add shea butter, beeswax pellets and coconut butter to a glass measuring cup.

diy-lip-balm-ingredients-beeswax-pellets-essential-oils-coconut-oil

Step 3: Place the glass measuring cup in the pan on the stove, and occasionally stir the mixture with a wood popsicle stick until all pellets are melted. Once they are melted, remove the cup from the stove, wait about 30 seconds, then add the essential oils. The combinations we chose are:
Peppermint: 30 drops
Peppermint and Lavender: 15 drops Peppermint and 10 drops Lavender
Peppermint and Wild Orange: 15 drops of each
Lemon and Wild Orange: 15 drops of each

Step 4: Stir the essentials oils in the oil. Quickly pour into the lip balm tubes before it hardens.

Step 5: Print labels. We made our labels for our lip balms using Avery labels. Free PDF file here. The Avery label you need to purchase is 5195. There are 60 labels per sheet.

Step 6: Once the lip balm is set (about 3 hours), stick the labels on.

diy-lip-balm

diy-lavender-and-peppermint-wild-orange-lip-balms

Share the lip balm love, and give to friends! Baci, Baci (kisses, kisses).

diy-lip-balm-with-yellow-beeswax-pellets

 

DIY Marbled Snowmen

DIY-black-and-white-marbled-snowmen-with-mini-santa-hats

This may be one of the easiest DIY Christmas projects ever. Do it with the kids. Do it last-minute. Just do it. You need these marbled snowmen in your life.

These DIY, black and white marbled snowmen can easily be made into ornaments, gift toppers, place cards and the list goes on and on.

How-to: Simply twist, twirl, fold, smash and then roll two colors of Crayola Model Magic foam into balls. Make three different sizes – small, medium and large – and stack them on top of each other. Add tiny sticks for arms and don’t forget mini santa hats from Oriental Trading.

Merry marbling to you.

black-and-white-diy-marbled-snowmen-christmas-crafts

img_8566

DIY Cardboard Box Entertainment for Kids: Indoor Golf

diy-indoor-golf-game-for-kids-cardboard-box

When Christmas is less than one week away and it’s too cold to go outside, we like to transform a cardboard box into a DIY Holiday indoor golf game. It’s totally worth it because it entertains our kids for hours.

Cardboard boxes have always been, and will always be such a versatile toy, capable of endless hours of activity and creativity.

If you feel like bringing a little golf indoors like we did, see the full tutorial we shared at Momtastic.

For those of you that look at this and see way too much work like most people, you must know…you don’t have to paint a thing or make it fancy. A plain cardboard box with small openings gets the job done. And, if the kids want to be the lead artist, let them.

diy-indoor-golf-game-for-kids-cardboard-box

DIY Stained Glass Ornament

DIY stained glass ornament-colorful-christmas-diy-art-project-for-kids

Last weekend we spent an afternoon crafting DIY stained glass ornaments with our kids. Check out the full tutorial at Momtastic.

This year, make your Christmas extra colorful and bright with this easy craft. Tissue paper scraps have never looked so pretty.